Publications by authors named "Nari M Williams"

Article Synopsis
  • Plant pathogens, like the one causing kauri dieback, threaten important tree species, making it crucial to understand their infection mechanisms for treatment development.
  • Genome sequencing has advanced, but assembling genomes with many repetitive sequences is still challenging, often missing key effector genes linked to virulence.
  • A comprehensive genome assembly identified 10 chromosomes with specific candidate effector genes, revealing significant gene duplication and the impact of transposons on gene variability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Oomycete plant pathogens, which encompass over 180 species, significantly affect various plants, including important crops, leading to substantial economic and ecological consequences.
  • The study sequenced genomes and transcriptomes of 31 species, revealing differences in genome size, gene counts, and the types of effector genes linked to their ability to infect various plant hosts.
  • Using machine learning, researchers identified 44 horizontally transferred genes from bacteria or fungi across 36 species, suggesting these genetic exchanges are key to understanding the evolution and adaptability of oomycetes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is an oomycete that was first isolated from soil, water, and tree foliage in mixed Douglas-fir-tanoak forests of the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

New Zealand kauri is an ancient, iconic, gymnosperm tree species that is under threat from a lethal dieback disease caused by the oomycete Phytophthora agathidicida. To gain insight into this pathogen, we determined whether proteinaceous effectors of P. agathidicida interact with the immune system of a model angiosperm, Nicotiana, as previously shown for Phytophthora pathogens of angiosperms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The emergence of as a foliar pathogen of Douglas fir in New Zealand and the Pacific Northwest United States has raised questions about its interaction with the widespread Swiss needle cast (SNC) disease. During Spring 2017, we repeatedly sampled 30 trees along an environmental gradient in each region and 292 additional trees in a longitudinal transect to assess the epidemic and the association between and , which are causal agents of SNC. Both pathogens were consistently more abundant in the host's exotic environment in New Zealand.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Understanding the epidemiology of infectious diseases in a host population is a major challenge in forestry. Radiata pine plantations in New Zealand are impacted by a foliar disease, red needle cast (RNC), caused by Phytophthora pluvialis. This pathogen is dispersed by water splash with polycyclic infection affecting the lower part of the tree canopy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Genome sequences were generated for six oomycete isolates collected from forests in Valdivia, Chile. Three of the isolates were identified morphologically as Phytophthora kernoviae, whereas two were similar to other clade 10 Phytophthora species. One isolate was tentatively identified as Nothophytophthora valdiviana based on nucleotide sequence similarity in the cytochrome oxidase 1 gene.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Phytophthora pluvialis is associated with early defoliation and shoot dieback in Douglas-fir in Oregon and New Zealand. In 2013, P. pluvialis was described from mixed tanoak-Douglas-fir forests in the Pacific Northwest and concurrently recognized as the main causal agent of red needle cast (RNC) in New Zealand radiata pine plantations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Phytophthora plant pathogens cause tremendous damage in planted and natural systems worldwide. Phosphite is one of the only effective chemicals to control broad-scale Phytophthora disease. Little work has been done on the phytotoxic effects of phosphite application on plant communities especially in combination with plant physiological impacts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF